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By Joel Magalnick , Editor and Acting Publisher, JTNews As we begin our new year and reflect on the one drawing to a close, we often use this as a time to think about how we can better support our Jewish community. One way to support your community, and atContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Shalom D. (Berry) Farkash, Chabad of the Central Cascades A few weeks ago, the children were all home after the last day of school, and we were getting ready for the start of a long summer vacation. After dinner we had a roundtable discussion regarding the upcoming monthsContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Jill Borodin, Congregation Beth Shalom One of my goals for this summer has been to expose my 6-year-old twin daughters to hiking. Over the past couple of weeks, we have gone out hiking twice. The first time, I picked an easy walk. This easy trail started out fine,Continue Reading

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By Edmon J. Rodman , JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — This year, Tisha b’Av marks not only the destruction of both Temples, but with the opening ceremony of the London Olympics just a night earlier, the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre. On this day of mourningContinue Reading

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By Edward Alexander, , Seattle When we pass the “biblical” age of three score and ten, we begin to feel — as Saul Bellow said when he passed that milestone — that old friends are “dropping all around as on a battlefield.” Yet nothing could have prepared us for theContinue Reading

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By Marcie Natan , JTA World News Service NEW YORK (JTA) — Pride and chagrin: It’s rare that the two emotions are experienced simultaneously. But that is how we are feeling at Hadassah. We feel pride because women now hold three of our top professional positions: Janice Weinman is ourContinue Reading

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By Mordecai Goldstein, , Everett I just want to say that I am very pleased with the performance of this journal. Here is an example of why I feel that way: Recently, the paper informed that a visiting professor at the University of Washington was none other than world-class IsraeliContinue Reading

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By Gil Troy , Shalom Hartman Institute The Middle East is combustible enough without adding one-sided, incendiary historical accounts to the mix. And yet, again and again, we see what we could call haute couture history — history custom-fitted to the trendy, distorted narrative that confuses cause and consequence, reducesContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Alan Cook , Temple De Hirsch Sinai I have been blessed to be involved in a number of opportunities for interfaith dialogue over the past several months. In a variety of settings, laypeople and clergy from a number of different religious traditions have discussed matters ranging from marriageContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Avremi Yarmush, Chabad of Whatcom County In this week’s Torah portion, Korach instigates a mutiny against Moshe Rabbeinu. Throughout history, Korach has been vilified as someone who was corrupt and had no fear of God. However, if we look at his argument, it doesn’t seem all that bad.Continue Reading

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By Rafael Medoff , JointMedia News Service Seventy years ago this month, America learned, for the first time, about the systematic mass murder of Europe’s Jews — but Allied officials and some leading newspapers downplayed the news. In late 1941 and early 1942, Western diplomats and journalists received scattered informationContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum , Herzl—Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation When I was in my early 20s, I went through a period of several years when I set Judaism aside. I had been raised with the best Jewish upbringing you can imagine: My father was a Conservative rabbi; our family wasContinue Reading

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By Jerry Barrish, , Seattle I wish to commend the JTNews and Charlene Kahn for the coverage of the disbanding of the Jewish Club of Washington (“Mission complete: Club’s disbanding marks the passing of a generation,” May 11). I was especially pleased at seeing the photo of Klaus and PaulaContinue Reading

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By Rocky Silverman, , Seattle Rebuttal to the plea: “Justice, justice we will pursue and make history“ by Rabbi Zari Weiss (Rabbi’s Turn, May 11). With all deference not to offend the rabbi, Washington State has same-sex partnership laws that contain over 170 rights and responsibilities in its provisions forContinue Reading

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By Robert Wilkes , Special to JTNews Most American Jews agree; Israeli settlements on the West Bank are an impediment to peace. Not me. In my view, settlements hasten peace. Before you order me boiled in matzoh ball soup, consider this. Those who fault Israel for the failure to achieveContinue Reading

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By Rabbi Ron-Ami Meyers , Congregation Ezra Bessaroth Various theories are advanced in our classic literature as to why on Passover, chametz — leavened products — are so reviled: Some suggest they represent haughtiness, while the Talmud views it as symbolic of man’s “evil inclination” that draws him away fromContinue Reading